Back on the Oatmeal Bandwagon + Creative Dinner Ideas

byJenonMarch 19, 2015

I can’t thank you enough for your very heartfelt and thoughtful responses to yesterday’s “You Do You” post. I will respond to each of them later today. It’s been really amazing to hear so many different stories and perspectives and it’s definitely something that needs to be talked about.

Speaking of nutrition and exercise, I’ve been in a bit of a lull lately with both so I’ve been focusing on going back to basics and getting in touch with what my body wants and needs. On the exercise front, that has been a break from high intensity workouts in favor of lots of time on my yoga mat and easy runs.

I love strength training but I find that from time to time, my body needs an extended break from it so I take a break. I think of it as a “rebuild and repair” phase where my body is ready to rest so that it can come back stronger. In the meantime, I’ve really enjoyed the extra time on my mat and yoga hasn’t felt this good in a long time so I’m happy.

On the food front, I have found that despite the arrival of warmer weather, my morning food preference has shifted away from cold smoothies to warm oatmeal.

I’ve had a bowl of banana egg white oatmeal topped with fig preserves and peanut butter for breakfast every day this week. Although the calorie count for my bowl of oatmeal is on par with my smoothies (I shoot for 400ish calories at breakfast), I think I needed more carbs and something with a little more staying power. This has been holding me over most days until 1 or 2 p.m.

Dinners this week have been creative and delicious. This is a fajita seasoned “perfect” chicken breast topped with guacamole. Topping chicken with guacamole = winning. On the side was roasted kale sprouts (I’ve decided I like them better sauteed) and roasted sweet potatoes. I don’t know how to describe it but this was one of those sweet potatoes that is the perfect texture and super sweet all on it’s own. I roasted it in coconut oil and I swear they tasted like sweet potato casserole. Some sweet potatoes are just WAY tastier than others!

I loved this tofu creation. I baked tofu (check out tutorial in this post) and then served it over roasted eggplant with sauteed baby spinach. I finished it with a sprinkle of feta and a spoonful of hummus. This dinner was crazy good…I highly recommend you recreate it at home for a meatless meal!

And finally, I never buy halibut because it’s typically super pricy but Whole Foods had it on sale this week. It was still $20/lb so I went a little crazy looking for just the right recipe. It was 8:30 p.m. and I still hadn’t found “the one” so I winged it and created my own. The fish is so good on its own that I kept the prep simple. I baked the halibut with salt, pepper, olive oil and lemon juice. While it was doing its thing in the oven, I prepared a batch of zucchini noodles and a sauce to go over the fish. The sauce was a mix of diced tomatoes, artichokes, kalamata olives that I sauteed together with some basil and oregano. I layered the dish in a shallow bowl starting with the zoodles and topped it all off with feta.

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I am always allll about oatmeal. It’s almost pathetic but if I have something else for breakfast, I just don’t feel right, especially when I run….Agreed on the sweet potatoes – some are just way more perfect than others but you don’t know until you cook and eat it!

This was me last week – I don’t think I picked up weights once! But then this week it has felt so good to strength train. I used to always think that if I wasn’t doing hiit workouts and strength training that I wasn’t getting in a real workout but learning how to intuitively work out has been SO much better for my overall health.

I love oatmeal for breakfast all of the time…unless it’s hot outside and I just came back from a run. Even then, once I take a shower and cool off, I can still eat it 🙂 Lately, smoothies have been sounding delicious to me, too!

I never stray far from porridge oats, chia seeds, cooked with banana, blueberries & almond milk & almond butter for brekkie. Winter or summer. I alwasy find i get hungry mid morning if i have something else. Could be just a habit thing.
Loving getting back to hot vinyasa before half ironman training ramps up.

For breakfast, I’m always either munching on oatmeal or banana ice cream (smoothie). I just can’t break the habit! As for workouts, its been an off week for me, so lately I’ve just been hopping machines at the gym and trying out something new! 🙂

I made honey mustard and rosemary chicken thighs this week. So good! I always resort to chicken breasts but the thighs are so juicy. I haven’t had halibut in years! The last time was at a fancy restaurant, but I do remember loving it.

you have been killing it with the running lately girl! it’s amazing. i hope the yoga is just what you need this weekend. it’s always a love/hate thing for me when i’m running that much and try to practice!

I crave oatmeal nearly everyday and I don’t mind eating it everyday! Lately I’ve been adding a big scoop of Greek yogurt on top, and I find that it will keep me full for hours. My go to toppings are almond butter, lotsa cinnamon, ground flaxseed and a whole banana.

I train in Krav Maga, and this week it just went really well – not sure why, but it just “clicked” this week. I also managed to do two hour-long yoga sessions at home this week, which is highly unusual but felt really good!

Ironically, we are welcoming the first day of spring with a snowstorm. I was in too much of a hurry to cook eggs this morning, so I made a quick smoothie… and felt kind of ridiculous drinking it while watching the flakes fall. 🙂

I'm Jen and I'm a personal trainer, yoga teacher and the author of Ultimate Plank Fitness and The Complete Guide to Yoga Inversions. I live in Charlotte, NC and share daily updates about food, fitness, yoga and life with two golden retrievers! You can reach me at jen@peanutbutterrunner.com.